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It likewise oxidates in muriatic acid; but I have had no opportunity of making the experiment with sufficient precision to ascertain the results.</p> <p class='gtxt_body' style='text-indent:1em;'>In sciences kindred to chemistry, the knowledge of the nature of the alkalies, and the analogies arising in consequence, will open many new views; they may lead to the solution of many problems in geology, and shew that agents may have operated in the formation of rocks and earths which have not hitherto been suspected to exist.</p> <p class='gtxt_body' style='text-indent:1em;'>It would be easy to pursue the speculative part of this inquiry to a great extent, but I shall refrain from so occupying the time of the Society, as the tenour of my object in this lecture has not been to state hypotheses, but to bring forward a new series of facts.</p> </div> <div class='gtxt_footnote'> <p class='gtxt_footnote'>his labours at this interesting moment were interrupted by dangerous illness of several weeks' duration. On his recovery, he found the subjects he had been investigating, seized on by MM. Gay Lussac, and Thenard, rather in the manner and feeling of contending generals intent on conquest, than of philosophical inquirers, members of the common republic of science. This proceeding, it cannot be concealed, annoyed him at the time; especially as there was often a want of reference on their part to his previous labours: and it necessarily had the effect of hurrying on his researches, as will be perceived in many of the following papers.]</p> </div> </div>  <div class='flow' style=''> <a class='page' id='PA102'></a> <div class='gtxt_body' style='margin-bottom: 1.5em;'> <p class='gtxt_body' style='text-align:center;'>102</p> </div> <div class='gtxt_body' style='margin-bottom: 1.5em;'> <p class='gtxt_body' style='text-align:center;'>III.</p> </div> <div class='gtxt_body' style='margin-bottom: 1.5em;'> <p class='gtxt_body'>ELECTRO-CHEMICAL RESEARCHES ON THE DECOMPOSITION OF THE EARTHS; WITH OBSERVATIONS ON THE METALS OBTAINED FROM THE ALKALINE EARTHS, AND ON THE AMALGAM PROCURED FROM AMMONΙΑ.*</p> </div> <div class='gtxt_body' style='margin-bottom: 1.5em;'> <p class='gtxt_body' style='text-align:center;'>I. <span style='font-style:italic;'>Introduction</span>.</p> </div> <div class='gtxt_body'> <p class='gtxt_body'>In the Philosophical Transactions for 1807, Part I. and 1808, Part I.† I have detailed the general methods of decomposition by electricity, and stated various new facts obtained in consequence of the application of <span style='font-style:italic;'>them</span>.</p> <p class='gtxt_body' style='text-indent:1em;'>The results of the experiments on potash and soda, as I stated in my last communication to the Society, afforded me the strongest hopes of being able to effect the decomposition both of the alkaline and common earths; and the phenomena obtained in the first imperfect trials made upon those bodies countenanced the ideas that had obtained from the earliest periods of chemistry, of their being metallic in their nature.‡</p> </div> <div class='gtxt_footnote'> <p class='gtxt_footnote' style='text-indent:1em;'>* [From the Philosophical Transactions; read before the Royal Society, June 30, 1808.]</p> <p class='gtxt_footnote' style='text-indent:1em;'>+ [The preceding Bakerian Lectures.]</p> <p class='gtxt_footnote' style='text-indent:1em;'>+ Beccher is the first chemist, as far as my reading informs me, who distinctly pointed out the relations of metals to earthy substances. See Phys. subt. Lipsiæ, 4to. p. 61. He was followed by Stahl, who has given the doctrine a more perfect form. Beccher's idea was that of an universal elementary earth, which, by uniting to an inflammable earth,</p> </div> </div>  <div class='flow' style=''> <a class='page' id='PA103'></a> <div class='gtxt_body' style='margin-bottom: 1.5em;'> <p class='gtxt_body' style='text-indent:1em;'>Many difficulties however occurred in the way of obtaining complete evidence on this subject: and the pursuit of the inquiry has required much labour and a considerable devotion of time, and has demanded more</p> </div> <div class='gtxt_body'> <p class='gtxt_body'>produced all the metals, and under other modifications formed stones. Stahl admitted distinct earths which he supposed might be converted into metals by combining with phlogiston; see Stahl Fundament. Chym. p. 9.4to. and Conspect. Chem. 1.77.4to.-Neuman gives an account of an elaborate series of unsuccessful experiments which he made to obtain a metal from quicklime. Lewi's Neuman's Chem. Works, 2d edit. vol. i. p. 15. The earlier English chemical philosophers seem to have adopted the opinion of the possibility of the production of metals from common earthy substances; see Boyle, vol. i. 4to. p. 564, and Grew, Anatomy of Plants, lec. ii. p. 242. But these notions were founded upon a kind of alchemical hypothesis of a general power in nature of transmuting one species of matter into another. Towards the end of the last century the doctrine was advanced in a more philosophical form; Bergman suspected barytes to be a metallic calx, Præf. Sciagrap. Reg. Min. & Opusc. iv. 212. Baron supported the idea of the probability of alumine being a metallic substance, see Annales de Chimie, vol. x. p. 257.-Lavoisier extended these notions, by supposing the other earths metallic oxides. Elements, 2d edit. Kerr's translation, p. 217. The general inquiry was closed by the assertion of Tondi and Ruprecht, that the earths might be reduced by charcoal; and the accurate researches of Klaproth and Savaresi, who proved by the most decisive experiments, that the metals taken for the bases of the earths were phosphurets of iron, obtained from the bone ashes and other materials employed in the experiment, Annales de Chimie, vol. viii. p. 18. and vol. x. p. 257. 275. Amidst all these hypotheses, potash and soda were never considered as metallic in their nature; Lavoisier supposed them to contain azote; nor at that time were there any analogies to lead that acute philosopher to a happier conjecture.</p> <p class='gtxt_body' style='text-indent:1em;'>[The author in a MS. Lecture, delivered at the Royal Institution, describing the train of inquiry, which terminated in the decomposition of the fixed alkalies, remarks, that on entering upon it, "The suspicion strongest in my mind was, that it (potassa) might consist of phosphorus, or sulphur united to nitrogen; for, as the volatile alkali was regarded as composed of an extremely light inflammable body, hydrogen united to nitrogen, I conceived that <span style='font-style:italic;'>phosphorus </span>and <span style='font-style:italic;'>sulphur</span>, much denser bodies, might produce denser alkaline matter; and as there were no known combinations of these with <span style='font-style:italic;'>nitrogen</span>, it was probable that there might be unknown combinations."]</p> </div> </div>  <div class='flow' style=''> <a class='page' id='PA104'></a> <div class='gtxt_body' style='margin-bottom: 1.5em;'> <p class='gtxt_body'>refined and complicated processes than those which had succeeded with the fixed alkalies.</p> <p class='gtxt_body' style='text-indent:1em;'>The earths like the fixed alkalies are non-conductors of electricity; but the fixed alkalies become conducting by fusion: the infusible nature of the earths, however, rendered it impossible to operate upon them in this state: the strong affinity of their bases for oxygen, made it unavailing to act upon them in solution in water; and the only methods that proved successful, were those of operating upon them by electricity in some of their combinations, or of combining them at the moment of their decomposition by electricity, in metallic alloys, so as to obtain evidences of their nature and properties.</p> <p class='gtxt_body' style='text-indent:1em;'>I delayed for some time laying an account of many of the principal results which I obtained before the Society, in the hopes of being able to render them more distinct and satisfactory; but finding that for this end a more powerful battery, and more perfect apparatus than I have a prospect of seeing very soon constructed, will be required, I have ventured to bring forwards the investigation in its present imperfect state; and I shall prefer the imputation of having published unfinished labours, to that of having concealed any new facts from the scientific world, which may tend to assist the progress of chemical knowledge.</p> </div> <div class='gtxt_body'> <p class='gtxt_body'>II. Methods <span style='font-style:italic;'>employed </span><span style='font-style:italic;'>for </span><span style='font-style:italic;'>decomposing </span>the <span style='font-style:italic;'>Alkaline </span><span style='font-style:italic;'>Earths</span>.</p> <p class='gtxt_body' style='text-indent:1em;'>Barytes, strontites, and lime, slightly moistened, were electrified by iron wires under naphtha, by the same methods, and with the same powers as those employed for the decomposition* of the fixed alkalies. In these<span class='gtxt_body'> cases, gas was copiously evolved, which was inflammable; and the earths where in contact with the negative metallic wires became dark coloured, and exhibited small points having a metallic lustre, which, when exposed to air, gradually became white; they became white likewise when plunged under water, and when examined in this experiment by a magnifier, a greenish powder seemed to separate from them, and small globules of gas were disengaged.</span></p> </div> <div class='gtxt_footnote' style='width: 20%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;'> <p class='gtxt_footnote' style='text-align:center;'>* See page 60.</p> </div> </div>  <div class='flow' style=''> <a class='page' id='PA105'></a> <div class='gtxt_body'> <p class='gtxt_body' style='text-indent:1em;'>In these cases there was great reason to believe that the earths had been decomposed; and that their bases had combined with the iron, so as to form alloys decomposable by the oxygen of air or water; but the indistinctness of the effect, and the complicated circumstances required for it, were such as to compel me to form other plans of operation.</p> <p class='gtxt_body' style='text-indent:1em;'>The strong attraction of potassium for oxygen, induced me to try whether this body might not detach the oxygen from the earths, in the same manner as charcoal decomposes the common metallic oxides.</p> <p class='gtxt_body' style='text-indent:1em;'>I heated potassium in contact with dry pure lime, barytes, strontites, and magnesia, in tubes of plate glass; but as I was obliged to use very small quantities,* and as I could not raise the heat to ignition without fusing the glass, I obtained in this way no good results. The potassium appeared to act upon the earths and on the glass, and dark brown substances were obtained, which evolved gas from water; but no distinct metallic globules could be procured: from these circumstances, and other like circumstances, it seemed probable, that though potassium may partially de-oxygenate the earths, yet</p> </div> <div class='gtxt_footnote'> <p class='gtxt_footnote' style='text-indent:1em;'>* [Procured by means of the Voltaic battery; the chemical method of obtaining the metal was not then known in this country; vide note by the author towards the end of this paper.]</p> </div> </div> </div> </div></div><a id="legacy-text-prev" style="font-size:80%;float:left;margin:2px 2px 2px 12px" href=https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=gpwEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA97&focus=viewport&output=text>« Previous</a><a id="legacy-text-next" style="font-size:80%;float:right;margin:2px 12px 2px 2px" href=https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=gpwEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA107&focus=viewport&output=text#c_top>Continue »</a></div></td></tr></table></div></div></div></div></div><script>(function() {var href = window.location.href;if (href.indexOf('?') !== -1) {var parameters = href.split('?')[1].split('&');for (var i = 0; i < parameters.length; i++) {var param = parameters[i].split('=');if (param[0] == 'focus') {var elem = document.getElementById(param[1]);if (elem) {elem.focus();}}}}})();</script>